beginner - py unicode Q

[enquiring mind]

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.

I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0

print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]

print ' program ends '

console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends

The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.

I ran it with these lines below from Rehceb Rotkiv's code but it did not
fix problem.
import sys
import codecs

I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.
Any help/direction would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

This built in setdefaultencoding(name) sets the default codec used to
encode and decode Unicode and string objects (normally ascii)and is
meant to be called only from sitecustomize.py at program startup; the
site module them removes this attribute from sys. You can call
reload(sys) to make this attriute available again but this is not a good
programming practice.

I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?

The ultimate console output I seek, of course, using a while or for loop
and/or random access for second verb, for example:
Wollen Sie kömmen?
Wollen Sie essen?
Wollen Sie trinken?

 

[John Machin]

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.

I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0

print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]

Note: the [:3] is redundant. "print verbs" would have the same effect.

When you do print list_tuple_dict_etc, Python prints the repr() of
each element. You are seeing repr('kömmen'). This is great for
debugging, to see exactly what you've got (\xc3\xb6 is the utf8
encoding for small o with diaeresis (aka umlaut)) but no so great for
presentation to the user.

To see the difference, insert here:
for v in verbs:
print v
print str(v)
print repr(v)

print ' program ends '

console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends

The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.

I ran it with these lines below from Rehceb Rotkiv's code but it did not
fix problem.
import sys
import codecs

Importing modules without using them is pointless.

I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.
Any help/direction would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

It doesn't solve your problem. Forget you ever read it.

This built in setdefaultencoding(name) sets the default codec used to
encode and decode Unicode and string objects (normally ascii)and is
meant to be called only from sitecustomize.py at program startup; the
site module them removes this attribute from sys. You can call
reload(sys) to make this attriute available again but this is not a good
programming practice.

I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?

It's "German" only to a human who reads the console output and
recognizes the bunches of characters as representing German words/
phrases/sentences. Python and your computer see only utf8 encoding
(which can be used to represent multiple languages all at once on the
same screen or in the same paragraph of a document).

Your console is quite happy rendering utf8 e.g. it printed "Ich zähle
zwölf weiß Hüte" OK, didn't it? Try this:

print "blahblah"
print u"blahblah".encode('utf8')
print u"blahblah"

and see what happens.

HTH,
John

 

[Gabriel Genellina]

I read the posting by Rehceb Rotkiv and response but don't know if it
relates to my problem in any way.

I only want to write German to the screen/console for little German
programs/exercises in python. No file w/r will be used.

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Filename: 7P07png.py
# SUSE Linux 10 Python 2.4.1 gedit 2.12.0

print 'Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.'
print 'Wollen Sie'
verbs = ( 'kömmen' , 'essen' , 'trinken' )
print verbs[:3]

print ' program ends '

console display is: Ich zähle zwölf weiß Hüte.
Wollen Sie
('k\xc3\xb6mmen', 'essen', 'trinken')
program ends

The first 2 print statements in German print perfectly to screen/console
but not the 3rd.

In the 3rd you don't print a string, you print a tuple. Python
internally uses repr() on each item, joins them using "," and puts
parenthesis around the whole thing.
That's not usually what you want; that representation is good for
debugging. (See below)

I also tried unicode string u'kömmen', but it did not fix problem.

Working in Unicode may be useful, but it's not your current problem.

I found this reference section but I am not sure it applies or how to
use it to solve my problem.:

Forget about setdefaultencoding!

I just thought of this. I suppose because this is py source code, it
should not be German but a reference/key to u'strings' to print German
text to the screen?
No...

The ultimate console output I seek, of course, using a while or for loop
and/or random access for second verb, for example:
Wollen Sie kömmen?
Wollen Sie essen?
Wollen Sie trinken?

Had you tried this before, you would have no problems.

for verb in verbs:
print 'Wollen Sie', verb, '?'

This way you print an individual item, and you can control exactly how
you like it displayed. Another way:

for verb in verbs:
print 'Wollen Sie %s?' % verb